The difference between New Jersey and New Orleans

There are many, but USA Today points to one particularly relevant to workers in search of a holiday this week:

For the first time in at least three decades, New Jersey will be one of 18 states open for business on the Friday after Thanksgiving, while state workers in Louisiana are under executive order to take a four-day weekend.

States like Louisiana that shut down for the day known as "Black Friday," one of the biggest shopping days of the year, cite factors such as family time and saving energy. [...]

New Jersey state employees have made more than 5,500 phone calls this month to Gov. Jon Corzine's office after protesting his executive order revoking the Friday after Thanksgiving as a state holiday. None of them has gotten the answer they wanted.

That contrasts to the approach Louisiana is taking this year. In October, Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed executive orders granting state workers three four-day weekends: Thanksgiving Friday, Christmas Eve (a Monday) and New Year's Eve (also a Monday).

New Orleans is much more in line with the rest of the world when it comes to vacation time. Having time off for rest and family is part of the "social wage" that most industrialized countries guarantee for workers, but has been gradually chipped away in the U.S. As David Moberg reported earlier this year:

Nearly one-fourth of American workers have no paid vacation or holidays, according to a recent study from the D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), and nearly half of all private sector workers have no paid sick days. [Workers in every] other industrialized country [are] legally guaranteed at least two weeks paid vacation and-in 136 countries-from seven to more than 30 paid sick days. The United States is the only rich country that does not mandate paid vacations and paid sick days, and Americans who are afforded such benefits enjoy far less time off than workers in other wealthy nations.

Fortunately, many Southern states give workers a break after Thanksgiving; as USA Today notes, employees in two states can thank a Confederate general and the regional religion known as football for getting a day off:

• Georgia celebrates Robert E. Lee's birthday on the day after Thanksgiving.

• In Virginia, state employees start the holiday with a paid half-day off on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, as well as having Friday off, according to Michael Salster of the state Department of Human Resource Management.

• Texas made Thanksgiving Friday a holiday in 1991, in part because of the traditional University of Texas vs. Texas A&M University football game formerly scheduled on Thanksgiving, according to state auditor John Keel.

• In Tennessee, the governor has the discretion to swap Columbus Day and the Friday after Thanksgiving as holidays. Given the option since 1987, the governor has done that every year.